Yeah, this is an education buzz word, but it is also a reality for teachers in my district this year. I have included in my class two students with labeled disabilities and soon to be a third. One of the students is profoundly disabled. He has never been in a general classroom before. THE. STRESS. IS. STARTING. TO. GET. TO. ME.
The profoundly disabled student is really a full time job by himself. He can't read. He scored a "0" on DIBELS. He can't add or subtract--he can barely count. Because of the new inclusion policy, he is in my classroom for the Reading and Math blocks. I haven't found one Math activity that he is capable of doing independently. I have trouble having a coherent conversation with him. He has no aid time and no one is coming in my room to help me. He is currently not being seen for all of his hours on his IEP and they are telling me the plan is to rewrite his IEP to be compatible with inclusion, BUT not to give any more classroom support. Basically, we're just taking away his hours. The answer I got when I complained about it was that our school will be having a training for classroom teachers on inclusion. Awesome.
I already am having an issue with him because he didn't understand my classroom bathroom policy and had an accident. Mom feels that he is not allowed to use the bathroom and told me to review his file. I don't even know what to do because he has never been in a large group class and he doesn't understand the policy.
I know that I am completely liable for any situation like the above, but no one asked me if I felt comfortable taking on this project. I am bringing home mountains of work because I have to triple plan everything. One third grade lesson for 20 students, one third grade lesson with no reading for 2 students, and one first grade lesson... It took me four and a half hours to write sub plans because everything has to be triple planned and I have two pages on how the sub needs to handle the sped kids.
I am seriously sinking in work. I honestly am tired of hearing from the special education teachers and administrators and superintendent how well our new total inclusion policy is going. No one has asked me what problems I am seeing and no one has asked me how they can help. Shouldn't the people who have to do all the work for inclusion have some say on how it is going?
2 comments:
That's my problem with inclusion- the cases where it's not helping the kid, and it's not helping the teacher, and it's not helping the class.
I have to wonder, WHO are they doing it for? So they can fill out the paperwork?
There are situations where inclusion works, and works well. But there are situations where it doesn't make sense, and in that case, it's outright wrong. I hope they find a way to make it work for you.
This is educational malpractice. If this child is capable of learning to read, it certainly isn't going to happen in this setting, through no fault of yours.
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